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the seventh chapter the author deals with the evil eye. magic and witchcraft, and mentions various methods adopted for counteracting the influence of witches. No mention, however, is made of the most potent method of all, viz., witch-murder. Perhaps in this respect the Bombay Presidency is more advanced than Behar and Orissa, where in 1920 the people murdered eleven supposed witches. A similar comment may be made on the subject of the cure of barrenness, which is included in the tenth chapter on women's rites. The murder of children, especially male children, followed by a bath in the blood of the murdered child, is well inown in other parts of India as a remedy for sterility. Three casos from the Panjab and United Provinces, which oocurred at the close of last century, have been recorded in this Journal. Three more cases occurred in the Panjab as recently as 1921. The absence of all reference to this type of ritual murder perhaps justifies the assumption that these savage methods of procuring offspring are no longer countenanced by the people of Western India.
Much more might be written about this pioneer work. The chapter on Village, Field and Other Rites is both important and interesting and should be road by those concerned with the rural economy of Bombay, while the chapter on Disease Deities should equally be known to those who deal with the sanitation of the small towns and villages and with the public health. Mr. Enthoven's work is not merely of value to the expert student of folklore and primitive belief, but possesses a practical value for all who play a part in the administration of the Bombay Presidency.
8. M. EDWARDES.
perusal, are epitomised in the fourth chapter of the essay, and are followed by a long note on the origin of the people of Annam. E. Chavannes, in his wasterly translation of the Memoirs of Seu ma Ts'ion, advanced the opinion that the Annamite race must have had affinity with that of the preChinese kingdom of Yue, which occupied the western portion of the province of Tchd-kiang and was destroyed in the fourth century B.C. M. Aurouseau in his note develope this theory and shows that it accords with certain well-established historical facte.
M. Parmentier contributed some interesting remarks on Indo-Chinese archeology, dealing with recently discovered Cham antiquities, the statue of Vishnu found in 1912 at Vong-thê, which now graces a small Buddhist pagoda, and various IndoChinese sculptures, the origin of which has not yet beon clearly ascertained. Another important paper is that of "The Vidy Arája" by Mr. Jean Przyluski, described as a contribution to the history of magic among the Mahayanist sects of Buddhism. He calle pointed attention to the fact that the doctrine of the Vidydrdja, or emanations from the Tathagata, finds its exact counterpart in one of the Gnostic scriptures, viz., the Eighth book of Moses, which was un questionably composed between the second and fourth centuries A.D. Like most Gnostic literature, it is a confused medley of religious beliefs in vogue at that date in the Eastern regions bordering on Greece. It is quite possible that Gnosticism borrowed largely from Indian philosophy, and it is equally possible that India in return felt the influence of various Eastern vecte about the fourth century A.D., that is to say, at the time when the idea of mantrardja appears in the Buddhist texts, and when ideas of magic commenced to pervade Mahåyanist literature.
M. F. Goré contributes an interesting collection of notes on the Tibetan rogions of Seu.Tohouan and Yunnan, which adds considerably to our goographical knowledge of those little-known lands; while ethnologists will find plenty of interesting matter in the miscellaneous papers which complete the literary portion of this volume. They deal with such subjects as "a method of fixing dates in vogue among the Laos", "Magic drums in Mongolia," and “The refuse of a neolithic kitchen-midden at Tam-toa in Annam." A bibliography and official record of the proceedings of the French School occupy the last two hundred pages of a work, which amply illustratos the capacity for painstaking and logical research posmossed by the French archeologist and antiquarian.
8. M. EDWARDH.
BULLETIN DE L'ECOLE FRANÇAIS D'EXTREME, ORIENT, Tome XXIII, 1923. Hanoi, 1924.
In a previous issue of the Indian Antiquary I dealt at some length with the history and achievements of the French Far Eastern School, particular. ly in regard to its antiquarian researches in Indo. China. The volume that now lies before me affords additional evidence, if this were needed, of the value of the work performed by French orientalists. The first hundred pages and more are occupied by an essay on the relations between Japan and IndoChina in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contributed by M. N. Peri, to which are added separate papers concerning boat-building and shipping in Japan, loans at interest advanced to shippers by the Japanese at that period, and thirdly a Japanese plan of Ankor-Vat. These papers are followed by a remarkable historical reconstruction of the first Chinese con quest of the Annamite country in the third century B.O.,--the work of M. L. Aurotuneau. His conclusions, which are worth
